Jac. P. Thijsse Park, designed Dutch landscape

The heem parks (parks that predominately feature native wild plants) De Braak, the K. Landwehrpark and, especially, the Jac.P. Thijsse Park in Amstelveen in the Netherlands, have been important sources of inspiration for landscape architects, gardeners, and nature lovers throughout the world since they were first laid out over fifty years ago. This new book looks at the extraordinary history of these parks and the visions they reflect of the landscape architect Christiaan Broerse and his colleague, the botanist Koos Landwehr. It also details Broerse and Landwehr's creative and highly original use of a great variety of native plants in these parks. Bekkers analyses the parks as integral elements of Amsterdam's urban expansion plans and demonstrates how successfully Broerse and Landwehr resolved the tension between the conservation movement and city planners. He shows too how interest in the Amstelveen heem parks have grown over time. These parks have played a key role, for instance, in the increasing